In the last year, as the incidents of hijacked ships go higher and higher off the coast of Somalia, there have been reports of how well the crews of those ships, who are now hostages were being treated. Some have said they were being treated well, in hopes that that would drive the ransom the pirates would receive higher. I even alluded to this fact in a previous article, when the Maersk Alabama was first seized on April 8. While this may be the case for some hostages, it appears all is not well in the pirate strongholds.

The Associated Press reports that some hostages have been in captivity for several months and the likelihood of their release seems to be no closer. These hostages are mostly from poorer nations such as the Philippines, Bangladesh and Indonesia and the companies they work for can not afford to pay the high ransom the pirates are demanding. So all of the talk about the pirates treating their prisoners well and feeding them well isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Picture this, if you will. Some of the hostages mentioned in The Associated Press article have been held since November 10, 2008 and they are still wearing the clothes they were captured in. They have been able to take baths, but can not change their clothes. Everything they have of value has been seized by the pirates and some of them are sick. There is no apparent end to their ordeal because the ransom is too high for the company to pay. There will be no rescue by military forces because the ships are anchored in a pirate stronghold.

To top it all off, the pirates claim they are protecting the costal waters of Somali, even though they are now operating hundreds of miles off the Somali coast. They also fail to mention that some of the ships they have hijacked were carrying food from international relieve organizations that was bound for Somali and the rest of Africa. They can talk all they want about their reasons for acting like a group of armed thugs, but it’s plain they are in this for the money they will receive as ransom and nothing else.

After the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama went awry and the Navy SEALs shot and killed three of the attackers, the Somali pirates have vowed revenge and to even kill any American crew members of ships they hijack. They would like to take the monkey off their back and put it on ours, but the fact remains that they are the ones who are breaking international law and hijacking these ships.

Sooner or later, something is going to have to be done about this problem. I don’t have an answer or a solution, but how long is the world expected to sit idly by and watch these ships be hijacked and the hostages kept away from their families for months on end. If it is the U.S. Navy, the French, or some other country who gets tired of their ships being hijacked, then so be it. These pirates have to learn sooner or later that their actions have consequences and sometimes, those consequences may be severe. Given their treatment of some of their hostages, it needs to be sooner.

Tags: Horn of Africa, Maersk Alabama, Navy SEAL, Somali Pirates

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 6:41 am and is filed under News/Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.